


Pond Dancing

by Shaw



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Ice Skating, Ienzo and Roxas are friends fight me about it, Post-Canon, Winter, Wow I'm self-indulgent arent i?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 04:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17759960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaw/pseuds/Shaw
Summary: Ienzo's first snow back in his proper home, in his proper life, gets graced with some special visitors. He's more than happy to spend time with friends and maybe pick up some old traditions along the way.





	Pond Dancing

Ienzo couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually seen snow in his home. It had to be nearly a decade since such meteorological events had transpired. That was why he figured it was at least somewhat appropriate that he sit by the window and watch the snowfall. Even had passed by him several times already, huffing each time as if he had something to say. Ienzo didn’t pay him very much mind. There were no immediately pressing matters to attend to; Ienzo could manage a brief respite. 

 

When his phone buzzed Ienzo was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a message from Dilan. He opened it to find that it was a simple picture of several guests at the front gate, clad in thick winter clothing. The message was brief but to the point. ‘You have visitors, Ienzo.’ 

 

Pulling his lab coat taunt around his form, Ienzo leapt up and went running for the door. He nearly ran directly into Ansem on his way out, giving the man a hasty apology before continuing on his way. Excitement was making his stomach turn in knots and odd shapes. 

 

“Greetings!” The heavily clad group lifted their head from their hands as Ienzo burst through to the front gates, face already flushing from the cold. Dilan and Aeleus took in the image of Ienzo in just his lab coat and work garb before both of them opened their mouth as if to reprimand him. They were beat to the punch. 

“Ienzo, what are you doing out here without a coat!” Olette snapped, pushing forward and grabbing Ienzo’s hands in her own. She was wearing a pair of mittens and the sudden warmth was welcome. 

 

“Ah, uh, I just-- I must have forgotten to put it on before I came out.” 

 

“Well let’s get you in some proper clothes then! We don’t want you to catch a cold.” Xion spoke up. She was dressed perhaps the least like she was trying to turn into a walking ball of clothing. Her coat was lighter weight and she had only a scarf and gloves to account for in winter wear outside of that. 

 

“Of course-- My apologies. Please, come in, everyone. Aeleus, Dilan? Would you care to join us?” The two guards shared a glance between one another, seeming to partake in a silent conversation. Dilan was the one to answer.

 

“If you would have us, we would be obliged to.” He then turned to Aeleus. “We can rotate the guards on station four to here while we’re on break.” He was given a nod of affirmation and the two’s body language immediately relaxed. At this point, Lea gave a groan. 

 

“Can we go inside now? I’m freezing my everything off.” With that said, he barged right past Aeleus, Dilan, and Ienzo and let himself inside. Isa rolled his eyes but followed him in, the high collar of his coat pulled nearly past his ears. Ienzo stayed back to let everybody in first before he brought up the rear. Roxas waved to him, beckoning to join himself and Hayner. 

 

“When they told me it was winter in this world, I didn’t really understand what they meant.” Roxas admitted, undoing his coat a bit as Ienzo closed the door behind them. Hayner grinned and threw an arm around Roxas’ shoulders with a laugh. 

 

“That’s right, I suppose. You’ve never seen winter before, have you? This is your first time seeing snow too… I’m glad someone dressed you properly then, I would hate if you weren’t able to enjoy today simply because you weren’t warm enough.” Hayner leaned into Roxas and muttered something that Ienzo didn’t hear that had Roxas shrugging him off with a laugh before fixing Ienzo with a smile. 

 

“Thanks, Ienzo. It’s kind of exciting… Lea and Isa said that there was an ice skating place open during the winter but they didn’t say anything about snow.”

 

“The rink! I’d completely forgotten about it. So that’s why you’re all here! I used to go every winter when I was little. Ansem tried to take me, after my parents passed, but he was always so busy... It will be nice to go again-- Oh, if you all don’t mind me coming along.” Ienzo felt his face heat up as he realized he’d essentially just invited himself along. Roxas was only smiling at him, expression soft as he listened to him speak. Hayner butt in then, bonking his head against’ Roxas’ gently. 

 

“C’mon, guys. Nice talk, but we’re totally wasting daylight here.” 

 

The group managed to make their way to the kitchen before Ienzo quickly departed to go find a winter coat. Clothing had been difficult after coming back. Nothing that used to be his that had survived the fall fit anymore. For obvious reasons, of course. He’d been stuck scavenging for clothes from others closets for a while before they managed to get into Ienzo’s inheritance funds. 

 

Admittedly he’d mainly used the money to buy more work clothes. Now that he was actually going places he had more reasons to buy casual clothes. 

 

When he emerged back into the kitchen, he had already dressed himself up. His coat was a muted plum with a light grey fur lining. He’d layered his pants and slipped on boots as well, laced up tightly. To top it all off he’d grabbed an old pair of earmuffs and had them hanging around his neck. 

 

“Alright! I’m ready to go.” He announced. From the table, Lea groaned pitifully. 

 

“You guys have to go on without me… It’s just too cold!” There was a chorus of complaint, the loudest coming from Isa. Ienzo cocked his head and looked to Aeleus and Dilan for answers. Aeleus merely shrugged. 

 

“Lea, this was your idea in the first place,” Isa started. “You can’t just bail out.” 

 

“I’m not bailing out! I just can’t go back outside or I might _die._ You know. _Again!_ ” Isa seemed thoroughly annoyed by this. Ienzo was, momentarily, afraid they might start to fight. He’d certainly seen them do so before, back when they were Saix and Axel. Axel’s lackadaisical attitude had gotten him into trouble plenty of times with his superiors. To his pleasant surprise, Isa merely huffed and resigned. 

 

“We can’t just leave you here alone. Who knows what kind of mischief you’d get into. You have a track record with this place and goodness knows the last few incidents have been less than ideal.” 

 

“Does this mean the trip is off?” Pence asked, tentatively. Isa shook his head while Lea smugly stared at his profile. 

 

“No. If you’re going with Ienzo, he will know where the pond is at. Furthermore, from what I understand… Aeleus and Dilan are accompanying you?” Eyebrows raising as he said this, Isa fixed the two men with a curious stare. They shifted under his gaze, once more looking at one another in silent conversation. 

 

“Are they?” Xion questioned. Olette looked at her and shrugged. Pence seemed more than a little intimidated at the prospect, making an unsure expression. 

 

“I was under the assumption we’d be returning to our post soon.” Aeleus murmured, rubbing his palm over his jaw.

 

“It would be… nice, to go out. I only hope that the public will have us.” Dilan input. Aeleus seemed less sure but his expression was turning slowly wistful. 

 

“Even if the public won’t have you, we’ll have you.” Hayner added. He seemed the most nonchalant at the prospect of hanging out with the two strangers. Dilan seemed surprised at the kid’s answer-- or as surprised as he could seem. He was fairly knowledged in schooling his expression. 

 

“As long as I don’t have to step foot in that weather again I couldn’t care less. Brrr!” 

 

“Your inability to thermoregulate is distressing, Lea.” Isa sighed. Lea fixed him with a bewildered look, but the comment did manage to make Ienzo laughed. Isa seemed pleased with that at least. 

 

“But who’s going to teach us how to ice skate then?” Hayner finally asked, seeming to realize a flaw in the plan being constructed. 

 

“I can!” Ienzo piped up. He internally cringed at himself for sounding almost too enthusiastic before he reminded himself it didn’t matter. He _was_ enthusiastic about it. 

 

“That’s right. Ienzo was just talking about how he used to go there all the time. Do you still know how to do it though?” Oh. Perhaps that was the real question. Brow furrowing slightly, Ienzo raised a hand to his mouth and worried the inside of his lip between his teeth. 

 

“I’m… Pretty sure I do. It’s a bit like riding a bicycle.” 

 

“But that's really hard!” Xion anguished suddenly, seeming despaired. The group erupted into fits of poor repressed giggling as Xion’s face heated up and turned pink. Ienzo smiled tightly to stop from laughing at the poor girl and waved a hand. 

 

“No, no-- It’s an old expression. Usually when you learn to ride a bike you never forget how to do so. Thus… You get the point, I’m sure.” Xion still looked unsure about it but Ienzo couldn’t blame her there. They were effectively going to be attaching blades to the bottom of their feet and being thrown out onto the ice to figure themselves out. Ienzo couldn’t really remember what age he’d been when he first properly balanced. Young, he supposed. 

 

“I’m fairly certain where I might fail, Dilan will be able to help you all. Aeleus perhaps not; He’s always functioned best on solid earth.” Ienzo cast a glance to the two men to find Aeleus’ face had darkened slightly. It was peculiar and made a smile spread on Ienzo’s face. Dilan shrugged nonchalantly.

 

“It’s been… a while. As long as you can balance you should be okay.” 

 

“Then enough talking about it,” Roxas announced with sudden invigoration. “I’m ready to get out there!” 

 

“Yeah, I’m with Roxas! Let’s go already!” Hayner was quick to the punch, pumping a fist in the air. The mood spread quickly to the point even Xion was dancing from foot to foot in excitement. Aeleus spoke up, waving his hands to get the volume level back down.

 

“Everyone quiet. You’re still in the research facility.” The reprimand got the group to hush up in time for the microwave to go off. They all turned to see Lea casually pulling a cup of hot chocolate out of the machine. He waved at them all before taking a seat next to Isa who at some point also had procured himself a drink. 

 

“No, really, by all means, help yourself.” Dilan sniped shrewdly, frowning at the two men. Lea shrugged harder, before sipping his drink. The two maintained eye contact through the long, loud sip. Dilan’s mouth twisted but before he could say anything Aeleus clapped a hand on his back. 

 

“Outside, everyone. You have ten minutes to prepare yourselves.” There wasn’t anything else that need be said. Hayner and Roxas were the first two to go dashing from the kitchen, Aeleus calling after them to stop running. Xion and Pence grabbed each other and followed soon after, Olette stopping to say goodbye to Isa and Lea before looking to Ienzo. 

 

“Let’s get going, huh?” 

 

The walk to the ice was more or less a teensy bit of a disaster. Ienzo had to backtrack several times to figure out where they were actually going. Apparently the pond that everybody used to skate on was no longer where he remembered it being. He wanted to chalk it up to his memory being less than ideal but there had been some… complications, when putting Radiant Gardens back to its former state. It was entirely possible that its location had simply shifted. 

 

Nonetheless they arrived, every last one of them huffing and puffing as their lungs protested the frigid air. The only one seemingly unaffected by it was Dilan. He had the collar of his heavy duster pulled up and his hands shoved into the pockets, but otherwise didn’t seem bothered by the frigid temperatures. 

 

Getting the ice skates ended up being the simplest part of the ordeal. There were plenty of people on the sidelines that had extra skates handy for people and would charge a small fee for you to borrow them for the day. Finding everybody’s size proved interesting but eventually everybody had gotten a crash course on putting their skates on. It was the learning to walk in them that things got sticky. 

 

Somehow, it was Roxas who had the best grasp of how to balance in the skates. He was even wobbling less than Ienzo and Dilan. Aeleus teetered subtly quite a bit but never toppled over; meanwhile, Olette was having the worst time staying upright. Xion had been reluctant to stand up once she got her skates on and it took some coaxing from Hayner and Pence alike before she was tugged to her feet. She stood completely still, watching the others walk and stumble. 

 

“Okay, I think we can try the ice now.” Ienzo murmured. There were plenty of people on the ice today, gliding around effortlessly. He could pick out a couple newbies, mainly children being taught by parents and siblings, and found some solace in knowing they wouldn’t be the only ones fumbling their way through this.

 

“Maybe in a bit.” Aeleus sighed, lowering himself to sit on the ground as he looked out over the crowd warily. Roxas stepped forward instead, determined look on his face. Ienzo found himself amused slightly at how serious he seemed. 

 

“I’m ready, for sure.” 

 

“Me too!”

 

“Me three!” 

 

And then they did awfully. Well, correction, everyone but Roxas and Dilan did awfully. Ienzo was surprised that Roxas stumbled only once before getting the hang of gliding. He was still moving very carefully but aside from Dilan, he was doing the best. The two kept a small distance between one another but were otherwise sliding around the ice together. Ienzo was further in the back, helping the others get accustomed to their new range of movement. He had to admit the fact Xion was just… sliding around despite not moving a muscle was impressive. She did seem slightly horrified though. 

 

“Eugh, what gives! I’m doing what you told me to do!” Hayner groaned. Ienzo had to admit he was right. He had given him all the instructions he remembered and somehow Hayner still wasn’t getting any movement. At least Pence was getting movement. He just needed to learn to stay upright when he turned. Olette… Well. At least she knew how to get up when she fell down. 

 

“I think you lost something.” Dilan said, stopping sharply before the group as he pushed Xion towards Ienzo gently. With no means of stopping herself, she merely bumped into him. She provided a sheepish smile, face a little too pale. Roxas came gliding over at a surprising speed before stopping himself clumsily and almost falling over. 

 

“This is, pretty fun, aside from constantly thinking about accidentally stabbing myself in the butt.” He huffed, watching Hayner struggle to skate to him. Xion gave a small shrill laugh but then went quiet. 

 

“I’m glad someone is having fun.” Ienzo sighed, giving Xion a small push towards landfall. Aeleus was still sitting out, watching them all. 

 

“I’m having fun!” Pence objected. Olette, who had seemed to finally get some kind of semblance of balance, chimed in to agree. 

“Yeah! This is pretty fun, I just wish I was doing better! Roxas, how are you doing it?” He shrugged at her nonchalantly. 

 

“I’m not sure. It just kind of makes sense.” Olette huffed and pouted at the unsatisfactory answer before making a valiant effort to try and skate her way over to Roxas. She made it into the glide before wobbling and falling forward straight into him. They went down hard, Roxas catching himself on his elbows and Olette face planting into his’ chest. 

 

“Are you two okay?” Pence went to the two of them, holding a hand out for either of them to help themselves up while Hayner vainly tried to get over to them. He was moving in increments that were, bluntly, just pathetic. 

 

“Yeah! Sorry! Uh…” Olette managed to get up with Pence’s help while Dilan helped Roxas back to his feet. 

 

“I’m good, I think. You sure you’re okay Olette?” Roxas frowned the tiniest bit as he looked Olette over to see if anything seemed wrong. She shook her head with a strained sounding laugh, legs wobbling. 

 

“Yeah, no, I’m fine. Just a bit stunned I think. I’ll be over it in a second!” Roxas didn’t seem pleased with the answer but nodded with a soft grunt, giving her a soft knuckle bump to the shoulder that she returned in kind. 

 

Ienzo took some time to himself to go skate properly, leaving Dilan with the others for the time being. From the fact Hayner was finally starting to actually move, Ienzo suspected he was giving far superior instructions than whatever he had done. He was snapped from his thoughts when Roxas came up on his side. 

 

“What are you thinking about?” He prodded. Ienzo couldn’t help the pause, the hesitation, before he reminded himself there was no game to play here. There were no hidden meanings to decipher, not with Roxas. 

 

“I don’t think I’m a very good teacher.” The admission was heavier than he thought it’d be; the lightness that he felt upon hefting it off his shoulders was pleasant. Roxas looked down to the ice beneath their skates as he considered his reply. 

 

“I think you did fine. You taught us what you could, right?” 

 

“I suppose, yes. I just feel like maybe I failed you all in teaching you sufficiently.” Roxas’ face screwed up slightly at this as he raised his eyes from the ground and stared imploringly at Ienzo’s profile. 

 

“Maybe your idea of sufficiently isn’t what was really sufficient?...” Roxas took a turn then, looping gracefully and coming up on Ienzo’s other side. Ienzo let himself fall back before repeating the movement around Roxas. 

 

“You’re trying to imply that there is a set standard for each person that can be counted as sufficient and that what one would consider to be their definition of sufficient is not always what another person’s sufficient truly is?” Ienzo watched as Roxas’ expression warped and changed to distinctly different emotions in the span of a couple seconds. Eventually he gave a soft ‘uh’ and shrugged with a non-committal ‘sure’. 

 

The laughter that bubbled up from him came so suddenly, Ienzo wasn’t sure what to do with it. He just giggled and kept on doing so, even as he figured it wasn’t quite as funny as his laughter was making it out to be. Nonetheless Roxas started to laugh along, slowly at first, and then in bright spouts. 

 

“Sorry, I’m not really as smart as you. You pretty much got it though, I think.” A pause. “Do you know any tricks?” 

 

The question caught Ienzo off guard, as he considered it. He didn’t really know any tricks, not impressive ones. Mainly just ones involving footwork. 

 

“A couple…” He finally admitted. Roxas gave him a broad smile, face lighting up. 

 

“Wanna teach me?” Ienzo couldn’t think of anything he’d want to do more.

**Author's Note:**

> Oof! I had to go back over this one a couple times because I may or may not have lost track of where it was going halfway through... So if it seems like that, it's because that's exactly it! Nonetheless I hope someone out there enjoys it! The idea came to my head and I just... Wanted to get it out there! 
> 
>  
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and don't forget! Kudos are appreciated but comments keep the stories coming! They're great for my motivation!


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